116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
The most popular food, restaurant stories of 2025 celebrate growth, new horizons
Despite uncertainties, these new openings flourished this year
Dec. 31, 2025 6:00 am
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If you’re like me, it takes a little thought to remember what you ate yesterday. And if you want to know what I ate in January, forget about it.
But now that we’ve returned from our holiday feasts, it’s time to look back at the restaurant and food stories that we savored most throughout the year. Thanks to good record keeping, we don’t have to rely on memory.
With uncertainty on the horizon, Iowa restaurants have continued to flourish, despite the challenges of the year.
With 2025 behind us, here are the food and restaurant stories you ate up this year.
1. Restaurateur plans three new restaurants, one relocation in Cedar Rapids, Marion
In 2024, the Iowa Restaurant Association named Cedar Rapids and Marion restaurateur Jade Luter as one of their “40 Women to Watch.”
What they neglected to mention was that you might have trouble keeping an eye on everything she’s doing. But that hasn’t stopped our readers from tracking her momentum.
In the year since earning the honor, Luter has been busy.
Early this year, she bought the well known Mas Margaritas brand in Cedar Rapids. In the fall, she started to shake things up.
Pregame Brew and Chew needed more space to grow, so she moved it from Mount Vernon Road SE to the old Mas Margaritas space on Boyson Road NE in Cedar Rapids.
The old Pregame became the first location for Casa de Ojos Locos, a new Mexican restaurant that Luter plans to expand to Marion next year.
That Marion duplex, being constructed at 6155 Carlson Way, also will make room for Cruz’s Cafe Encore, a sequel to Luter’s breakfast cafe in Cedar Rapids.
2. Wild and wonderful new foods, drinks debut at the 2025 Iowa State Fair
The perennial favorite about the wild, wonderful and weird new concoctions at the Iowa State Fair is always a crowd pleaser.
This year’s lineup went easy on me with some mostly delicious creations.
The Saigon Lobster Bomb was explosive in all the right ways as a new merging of cultures — unlike 2024’s lobster corn dog, which bombed for me, personally.
The Butcher’s Donut was a symphony of sweet, salty and savory flavors.
Choc-O-Taters, perhaps the biggest surprise, made boiled and mashed potatoes into a memorable sweet treat.
The pickled pink lemonade was a terrible way to end my day.
3. Salsa Guy reveals second location in northeast Cedar Rapids
Decades after commercials stopped asking “Where’s the beef?” the Salsa Guy brought life to an abandoned Wendy’s with one of his most exciting developments.
Less than a year after opening his first brick-and-mortar on Mount Vernon Road SE, Salsa Guy Cafe owner Tim Palmer opened a second location with a drive-thru and a larger dining room at 2935 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE.
Palmer, who brought back the Alfalfa’s Deli sandwich local diners cherished from the parents of Cedar Rapids native actor Elijah Wood, knows how to cultivate cult-like excitement around his brand. His strategy for the new location — announcing it first in an exclusive with The Gazette — paid off with many thousands of page views on one of our most popular stories of the year.
I have a feeling his story will have more developments.
4. Cedar Rapids’ first Asian hot pot restaurant plans location near Lindale Mall
The hot pot scene is starting to heat up.
MIX brought the first hot pot restaurant to Linn County with its Marion opening in 2022. This year, Cedar Rapids got one of its own in the Asian specialty.
Boiling Pot opened earlier this year at 5070 Lindale Dr. NE, next to Great Harvest Bread Co.
The restaurant takes an all-you-can-eat approach to the uniquely social experience in group dining.
5. The Bohemian building sells to Cedar Rapids property mogul, restaurateur
The historic Matyk building at 1029 Third St. SE was sold to a Cedar Rapids property mogul and restaurant owner.
The building previously occupied by The Bohemian restaurant sold to “NH Florida 1 LLC,” a company registered to Kory and Kevin Nanke, on Feb. 24 for $250,000.
It was first listed on the market for $990,000 in early 2023, before an apparent foreclosure or forfeiture in May 2024, according to Cedar Rapids City Assessor records.
Kory Nanke, owner of Epic Catering LLC, houses an array of restaurants across his Cedar Rapids properties, including Riley’s Cafe on 5th, Midtown Reserve, and Midtown Station.
The latest move comes after another purchase of a well-known landmark. In 2024, another LLC holding of Kory Nanke purchased the former Sykora Bakery building in the Czech Village.
6. Lincoln Winebar in Mount Vernon earns spot in new ‘50 Top Pizza’ U.S. rankings
Lincoln Winebar in Mount Vernon became the first from Iowa to earn a place on the prestigious “50 Top Pizza” ranking.
Every year, the Italian publication releases influential industry guides covering Asia, Latin America, Europe, Italy and the United States. Rankings are determined annually by pizza inspectors who travel the world to try restaurants that have been identified. American rankings are determined by inspectors based in the United States.
The international ranking comes a year after the Mount Vernon staple made the New York Times list of 22 best pizzas for its wood-fired, artisan style.
“It’s a big deal to me because of everybody else that’s on the list. It’s the who’s who of pizza places in the country,” said owner Jesse Sauerbrei. “To be on a list in a small town in Iowa … it means a lot to me, and I think it should mean a lot to Mount Vernon having a little gem here.”
As if the opinion of international pizza inspectors was not enough, I also chimed in with my personal opinion in a July review, giving it high marks for quality and service.
7. New coffee shop, bookstore planned for Czech Village to carry on Mary Kay McGrath’s legacy
The 2024 death of Mary Kay McGrath, known as “the Angel of the Village,” left a void in the Czech Village and New Bohemia.
Now, McGrath’s daughters are picking up the mantle with a cafe and bookstore that goes by her catchphrase, “I’ll Meet You There.”
The joint concept, opened in December, hopes to bring more energy to the district she cared deeply about.
Now, the phrase that bonded her family in the busiest years of their lives will bring others together.
8. McDonald’s franchise requests rezoning for new location in southeast Cedar Rapids
Most restaurant news does not veer into controversial territory, but this ongoing story is one exception.
This month, a McDonald’s franchisee hoped to rezone a portion of Cedar Rapids at 3414 Mount Vernon Rd. SE, between 34th and 35th streets, for a new restaurant.
The proposal would have required demolishing the existing Community Savings Bank between 34th and 35th streets and rezoning adjacent parcels of land from traditional residential single unit (T-R1) to a traditional mixed-use center (T-MC.)
Multiple residents in the neighborhood spoke to concerns including safety of pedestrian students from the nearby elementary school, higher traffic volumes, loss of housing, noise and litter. The Cedar Rapids Planning Commission unanimously declined to recommend the rezoning request.
9. New pair of restaurants plans NewBo opening in former Chrome Horse location
For months after The Chrome Horse Saloon closed, diners eager for something new held their horses.
In the fall, the first of a pair of restaurants opened a cafe for breakfast and lunch at 1201 Third St. SE.
The restaurant opened as Oddmama’s Vintage Cafe before being renamed Mercury Diner & Drinks in December.
Rhapsody, a companion concept, was being planned to open in the same building sometime next year.
10. Happy Joe’s Pizza closes last Corridor location in Cedar Rapids
It was the end of a nostalgic era.
In September, the Corridor’s last remaining Happy Joe’s Pizza location closed in Cedar Rapids after almost 40 years in business.
The closure follows a steady decline in Linn and Johnson counties. In years past, the Davenport-based brand had a much stronger presence across Eastern Iowa.
The Happy Joe’s location at 5070 Lindale Dr. in Cedar Rapids closed in 2021, followed by the abrupt closure of the Hiawatha location in August 2024. North Liberty’s location closed a month after Hiawatha’s.
Locations remain open in Cascade, Dyersville, Maquoketa and the Quad Cities.
11. Curious Iowa: Why does Cedar Rapids have so many Mexican restaurants?
I finally got around to answering the pesky question that never seems to die in Cedar Rapids.
The City of Five Seasons loves its seasoning, judging by the burgeoning growth of Mexican restaurants around town.
Cedar Rapids’ proportion of Mexican restaurants is actually slightly lower than the national average, as it turns out.
And now, Iowa restaurants with cuisine from south of the border are growing increasingly diverse. Thanks to trends among younger generations, growth has moved beyond Mexican restaurants. Iowa’s Latino restaurant scene has branched out to El Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and other countries.
“Just because there’s a lot of Mexican restaurants doesn’t mean you’re only getting one type of food,” said Jessica Dunker, president and CEO of the Iowa Restaurant Association. “If you dig in and look at the regions, you realize there’s as much variety as you might consider between California and Creole cuisine.”
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
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